AN MP has written to Bournemouth council demanding answers after it hired consultants to assess its own planning application.

Last month it was revealed that the borough had appointed Blueprint Planning in the role of a planning officer – preparing an impartial report for the planning board – on the controversial Wessex Fields junction plan.

Now Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood, who is against part of the Wessex Fields scheme, has called on the council to justify its actions. Once a councillor on a planning board, Mr Ellwood told the Echo he had not encountered this practice before.

He said: "I attended the Holdenhurst Village Residents Group meeting where this was raised and I have now written to the council seeking clarification on how the responsibility for judging a planning application has been outsourced from the council’s planning department to Blueprint Planning in Glasgow."

Last month, campaign group Friends of Riverside accused the council of a fix up in the appointment, however the borough said "it is not unusual for local planning authorities to use planning consultants to aid capacity" and it was "satisfied there is no conflict of interest".